Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is becoming a popular method to create prototypes and custom manufactured articles. A surface of an article manufactured using 3D printing methods may include a pattern of ridges, which reflect one or more filament or powder layers used to construct the article. Further processing may be performed to achieve a smooth finish on the surface of the 3D printed article using one or more techniques. For example, the article may be physically sanded to achieve the smooth finish, however 3D printed articles may be difficult to sand due to arbitrary topology of the articles, and sanding involves more time and labor. In another example, solvent processing may be performed on the article, where the article is placed in a solvent based soak which may cause an outermost layer of the object to swell and subsequently allow the solvent to slowly evaporate to create a smooth layer. However, the solvents used may be volatile, representing significant health and safety questions.
Accordingly, current techniques to smooth a surface of a 3D printed article could use improvements and/or alternative or additional solutions in order to provide a quick, safe, and cost effective method to achieve a smooth surface.